Atkins, Sarah: Relics of antiquity, exhibited in the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum: with an account of the destruction and recovery of those celebrated cities (London: St. Harris, St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1825)

CHAPTER IL

“ The fluid lake that works below,
Bitumen, sulphur, salt, and iron scum,
Heaves up its boiling tide. The lab’ring mount
Is tom with agonizing throes. At once,
Forth from its side disparted, blazing pours
A mighty river; burning in prone waves,
That glimmer through the night, to yonder plain.
Divided there, a hundred torrent-streams,
Each ploughing up its bed, roll dreadful on,
Resistless. Villages, and woods, and rocks,
Fall flat before their swmep. Tire region round,
"Where myrtle-W’alks and groves of golden fruit
Rose fair; where harvest wav’d in all- its pride ;
And where the vineyard spread its purple store,
Maturing into nectar; now despoil’d
Of herb, leaf, fruit, or flower, from end to end,
Lies buried under fire, a glowing sea.”
MALLET.

About four o’clock on the morning of the
19th, according to the arrangement of the pre-
ceding evening, we mounted our mules, and be-
gan the ascent of Vesuvius. Our road lay through
orange groves and extensive vineyards; and it
was a pleasant sight to see the dressers of the
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